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Drivers 'paid 26bn' in fuel duty last year

Chancellor George Osborne has been urged to ditch the planned fuel duty hike after British motorists paid more than £26bn in fuel taxes last year, according to new research from the AA.

Figures showed that fuel duty contributed more than £26.8bn to the Treasury during the last financial year, but the Chancellor is thought to be pressing ahead with plans for a 3p-a-litre increase in the New Year.

Despite fuel duty remaining unchanged for 20 months, the AA claimed that fuel levies from the 2012/13 financial year are on course to equal the figures posted last year.

The AA said last year's total of £26.8bn was only 1.7% down on the record high of £27.26bn from 2010/11, while the 2011/12 dividend was almost three times higher than the £9.63bn received by the Treasury in 1990/91.

Motorists in the UK have experienced two wholesale petrol price bubbles since April this year, with average petrol prices rising to a record high of 142.48p a litre in the spring and to 140.23p in the autumn.

On both occasions, wholesale prices, including VAT, dropped by 10p a litre, but this was only reflected by a 4p slump in pump prices less than a month later.

The AA added that escalating petrol prices were acting as a deterrent to many motorists in the UK, with 527 million fewer litres of petrol being sold in the six months to October - costing the economy around £305.4 million in lost tax.